Do You Have a Swarm?

The honeybee (Apis Mellifera) is the only type of bee or stinging insect to swarm. Swarming is the process by which a new honeybee colony is formed whereby the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees. The biggest or primary swarm, comprises about 60% of the worker bees together with the existing queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees.

When a swarm of bees leaves the hive it normally heads for a nearby tree, bush, wall, car, railing, eave, or any other place where it establishes a cluster around the queen while they consider options for a more permanent home. They can stay in this location for 2-3 days. The arrival is one of the finest sights in nature, albeit rather scary and noisy. Some describe it as a black cloud that makes the sound of an express train or a chainsaw.

At Sinah Common Honey we are experts at collecting swarms and we will ensure that they are given a good home within our production apiaries. We will normally collect simple swarms free of charge however if the swarm is more difficult to capture or other difficulties exist we may charge a callout fee and a fixed price to cover expenses.

Sadly we are not able to recover bees that have made their home in cavity walls, roofs or hollow trees. Nor will we work at heights above 10 feet.